Russell Investment Group (Russell) has appointed two new associates to its Amsterdam office, directors Michiel Faber and Henk Radder.

They join from ING Investment Management and WatsonWyatt respectively, and will support Russell's growing client base in Benelux and Nordic regions, which in 2005 alone added over 10 new mandate wins.

Russell saw record growth in the Benelux and Nordic regions in 2005, with over EUR 1.5 billion raised from new clients. The company's Amsterdam office, which was established in 1996 with a staff of one and four institutional clients, now has a staff of 10 and manages over EUR 5 billion in assets for more than 30 clients across the Benelux and Nordic regions.

The current client list includes Stichting Pensioenfonds ING, Xerox Pensioen fondsen and Stichting Pensioenfonds TNO in the Netherlands, Etera in Finland, Kapan in Sweden, Gjensidige in Norway and PensionDanmark in Denmark, while Russell's total AuM in Europe, the Middle East and Africa now amounts to over EUR 40 billion.

'Russell is committed to ensuring our infrastructure fully supports the strong growth of our client base,' says Johan Cras, managing director of Russell's Amsterdam office. 'As the multi-manager approach continues to gain momentum, the extensive experience of Michiel and Henk will further enhance our client service team and support the roll-out of our exciting new product range. These new funds are designed to give our clients even greater flexibility to tailor solutions to their specific investment needs and include a suite of absolute return funds as well as active currency management, real estate and alpha-porting strategies.

"Multi-manager solutions offer peace of mind to investors regardless of scale, allowing clients to focus on core areas of competence, address lack of critical mass in a particular area or simply diversify their asset base to reduce risk and maximise returns. We are delighted to witness Russell's approach gaining increasing traction in the dynamic and sophisticated Benelux & Nordic market. With the advent of new pension legislation in Sweden and the Netherlands already beginning to shape investor behaviour in our markets, we expect multi manager solutions to be in demand in 2006 and beyond."